Santa Came! Christmas Morning

We slept in a bit and kicked things off around 9:00 on Christmas morning.  Every year Mom and I do matching pajamas, sometimes the boys coordinate a little bit, sometimes not, but this year we finally found the most perfect set and Macy's had the same pajamas in the men's section as they did the women's! Finally after years of looking!

We are 29, 29 and 26 and still act like kids on Christmas morning

Christmas Morning is a big production in the SothHenBux house - we take our time on the presents, enjoy, relax, take drink/snack breaks - and spend the entire morning under the tree.

 The first little bit is always about Nash, always 

Next up is always stockings!  I blogged about our stocking traditions yesterday and it takes a little while opening them because they are usually filled to the brim, with an overflow bag, but it's a very special part of our day and a very special tradition and very meaningful

Both Mom and I have our cameras sitting out under the tree making it easy to get tons of photos because they are close by for anyone to grab

 Nash loves Christmas

 Ever since we were little the first gifts Davey and I opened were from each other.. this year Derek joined in and those were the first gifts opened for all three of us.. Davey did good this year, Can't go wrong with his girls Tory and Kate and the GCB kills me - Mom, a couple of the girls and I were probably the only people that watched this show when it was on and somehow I saw it was available on Amazon (probably won't be around for long) and passed the note along to Davey

After the "traditional first present" it's just an array of present opening and casually passes from person to person in no order or reason,  but we do all love watching as well as opening 

 Davey got a bunch of prints for his house including new ones of all our past dogs and this beautiful one of our model Nash

Last week, I blogged about Nash smelling out a gift that was hidden at mine and Derek's house: here

The item he found was a K-9 cannon we put in with one of Steve's gifts for him and Nash to play with - it was one of the hits of Christmas, all the boys went out in the yard to play while Mom and I finished brunch.. Photos below.. but Nash wouldn't stop staring at it all morning! (Literally the photo on the right is of him staring at it, we moved it to the floor for him to look at)

I tried to get one action and one posed shot of everyone.  Mom loves Lilly, Kate and Tory too.

I've been waiting forever for the time to come that I'd need my own Spode set :)

 Derek took his job of being in charge of the trash very seriously 

 I always make sure that I save my last present until everyone else is done so I can "open the last gift" - this year, Derek tried to steal that honor from me and we compromised and did the last gift together.  You can see me watching very closely that he is actually opening his gift at the same time as me

 and in true form - Derek was being Derek in the photo below

So, Steve and his friends are always doing funny things, etc. and they've been known to use a fart machine a time or two (they got some real kickes out of one on their recent trip to Arizona) and one of them sent him a new one for Christmas which he happened to accidentally open when Derek was the only one in the room and the rest of us were on snack/drink breaks.  

I saw Steve near my pile of gifts and quickly scurry away as I was on my way back into the family room and he said he was just "checking to make sure a gift was under there." Derek and I weren't going to be home for the big Family dinner on Christmas night and we wanted to get a glass of cheer in with some of the family on Christmas Day so we did under the tree - I had asked Steve to take our photo with the cheer (this photo was taken after the hysterical laughing from everyone stopped) and set him up perfectly - the fart machine went off just as I was smiling (and from growing up with these around from Steve and his friends, I instantly knew what it was) but everyone was already in hysterics, including me.. it took a few minutes to get back to normal - great Christmas Tree memory

I mean, talk about capturing the moment - thankfully I took my camera back to capture everyone's faces

Mom and I put the finishing touches on brunch (which was very simple since everything can be made the day before)...

Recipe for the Coffee Cake and Casserole here from last year's breakfast

 …While the boys all enjoyed Nash's new toy and yes, it was aimed at me and hit me more than once.

 Where would we be without a few matching presents?!?

The rest of Christmas Day/Weekend and our Family Christmas Dinner up tomorrow to end out the festivities

Xo CHS